[bowjunkie]

Thanks for posting this up Timm. Good news in deed.

A couple of points I'd like to make as well as I pretty much agree with all above.

There should be mandatory minimum fines that are very severe in my opinion. The way it is now, even with the new law, is that it is still up to the descretion of the person catching the offender. Those violations that Chunky pointed out (over limit, no license, trespass, etc..etc..) should be stomped on and severe fines levied from the get go.

Also, I would wager that most poaching takes place on public land where the hunting opportunities are already affordable. I see it year in and year out. And, I have also seen it on high dollar leases where folks have paid good money. A slob is a slob, but I know the public lands get hammered as there is free road access year round in fairly remote areas, unlike having to cut a private gate lock off or jump a fence from the roadside.

Another very big issue (probably the biggest issue) is that there are not enough game wardens to patrol all the land out there. Maybe some of the resident wardens can chime in here, but I would wager ther is only a handful per county at best, and that may be stretching it in some areas. I know for the SHNF where I hunt there is one federal and two state wardens for 162K acres...that's 253 square miles! Dallas is 330 square miles....pretty daunting if ya ask me when you compare the size of Dallas' police department at 2,822. We can help by supporting operation game thief and the game Warden Association.

Another problem....is apathy. How many of us have witnessed a game violation and done nothing about it. If each and every time a call was made to the appropriate authorities, I think the number of poaching incidents would decline dramatically.

Anywhooooo I'm glad to see this step taken by the TPWD. Maybe we'll see additional laws with even more bite soon.